SAN JOSE — Sunday, everybody stayed home. Monday, the Sharks were back at the rink, but for the most part stayed off the ice.

Video meetings and off-ice workouts were on the agenda, but Todd McLellan chose to take advantage of this three-day break in the schedule by putting the emphasis on rest while the Anaheim Ducks are playing twice over the same period.

The fact the Ducks lost 4-2 in Edmonton on Sunday night does make them more vulnerable and if the Ducks lose tonight, the game between San Jose and Anaheim on Wednesday night goes from big to huge or beyond.

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But McLellan said there were no fist-pumps on the McLellan couch when Anaheim’s loss was in the books last night.

“All that does is drive home the nail a little deeper into us that we didn’t take advantage of opportunities,” McLellan said without bothering to mention San Jose’s loss Saturday to the Nashville Predators or other nights when the Sharks came away empty-handed against non-playoff teams.

“We have nine periods of hockey left,” he continued. “Those nine periods have to be real good periods. They have to prepare us to play against whoever the opponent is. That’s the best way of approaching it. If we spent too much time watching other teams fail or succeed. . . . Unless you’re in front, you can’t control what happens. We’re behind right now. That’s just the way it is.”

McLellan was asked how he can prepare his team to take advantage of the fact the Sharks will be rested on Wednesday night against an opponent playings its third game in four nights in three different buildings.

“We’ve been in that situation before where we had to play a number of games back to to back with travel,” he said. “We know what it feels like physically and mentally. It’s another challenge for our group. We have to go into that building and play well. We didn’t do that in our one other triip this year. Doesn’t matter to us if they’re tired or they’re fresh. We have to play our game and play it well.”

****The Sharks third line has cooled off lately and McLellan said the combination of James Sheppard, Marty Havlat and either Matt Nieto or Tommy Wingels needs to step up.

“Team wide we have to be better, each line individually and individuals on each line,” he said. “I think that group of players can make a huge difference when we look at matchups. That third group – Shep and whoever’s playing with him, Tommy Wingels or Matt Nieto, whoever else is on that wing, has to elevate their level of play to make a difference.

“They don’t have to score every night, they don’t have to carry the team,” the coach added. “But their minutes have to be difference-making miutes and I think they can be better in that area.”

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****Raffi Torres and Jason Demers were on the ice Monday morning, but both were testing new skates. I’ll let you figure out if that’s a sign Torres will return to the lineup against the Ducks, something McLellan did not rule out last week.

****Tomas Hertl spent more time on the ice than anyone. For those keeping track of jersey colors, this time it was teal – giving him the trifecta in his last three practices. Hertl was working with Barry Karn, a skating coach the team has brought in a few times this season on special assignment.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Join other WTC members… you’ll need an NHL.com account, but you can list any name you want (use your WTC handle).

Bragging right are on the line… maybe Hockeynut will finally join.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Thanks, Buddy.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Forgot the pw, so I scrolled around to find it. Good for a laugh.

Buddy Elf

Thanks and fixed!

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Anybody missed it, DP has a story up on Matt Nieto & his mom. She’s fighting cancer – and he got through and out of a tough neighborhood thanks in no small part to hockey.

Thanks, DP. Great story.

Topcatone

Duck’s Anderson didn’t travel after get hit in the mask, and Hiller playing poorly, so they are starting Gibson, first NHL start. Come on Vancouver, show a little pride and play desperate to get that final playoff spot.!

N05tradumba55

Helps to keep #’s 9 &15 together IMO. Puting two other players with #15 didn’t make sense to me and I think it showed.

NB Finfan

LAK cannot change their seeding by winning or losing. They are in a position to rest players that need to heal or rest and play players that need some tuning.

With that in mind, should Sharks make winning the #1 seed their top priority or should their top priority be in getting their players ready for the playoffs?

PattyWakBakersMan

Can’t believe I’m actually going to be rooting for the Nucks Tonight, I’m disgusted with myself. The enemy of my enemy is my friend I guess???

GP_hockeyhappens

IMO, really only one important game left for the Kings. That will be Thurs (I think) vs the Ducks. The divisional and crosstown matchup/rival.

Added incentive will be if the Sharks beat the Ducks on Wed. They could very well be playing the Ducks in the 1st round if that happens.

NB Finfan

No doubt the players on the ice will want to set the tone for the playoffs. For that matter, the players on the ice will want to win every game they play and this includes the coach. But I think the coach has an obligation to prepare his team for the playoff run. So if there are players that need a night off, I think they are going to get it even if it is the Ducks.

GP_hockeyhappens

I think that will be the case. And if players are in because someone else is “resting” then that replacement will be out there with the attitude “Hey, coach! Look at me!” Especially if the team is a PO team.

Thanks a bunch Canucks. Worthless, feeble effort. Kessler looked like he could care less and wants out. I predicted they would not be able to make the playoffs with the new tough Pacific. I hope they are happy with Tortorella for another four years. The deserve him and all the grief that is coming. Makes it near impossible for the Shark’s to get 1st now. Even if we win out, Ducks have to lose to us and then at least one of their last two it seems.

Buddy Elf

“I predicted they would not be able to make the playoffs with the new tough Pacific.”

I think everyone predicted that.

Buddy Elf

We’re talking about Hockeynut here…

renoshark

They looked good against LA the other night though. Go figure. Gillis will probably get fired, although Torts might as well. Torts was more of an ownership hire rather than a Gillis hire but the new GM might want to bring in his own guy and it’s doubtful Torts is that guy.

GP_hockeyhappens

Can you say “goalie controversy” in Orange County? 😉

franckiyayo

Really Stevo, obvious choice here: Roenick.

One wise man once said: “You should always be worried about Patrick Marleau when the chips are on the line.”
Believe you me, Marleau will never win a Stanley Cup

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Zac Rinaldo gets 4 games for hit on Chad Ruhwedel. Ruhwedel is out for the rest of the season w/ a concussion. What’s the logic, Shanny? Cleary’s hit on Hannan was a more obvious head-shot.

Rinaldo’s stats are really impressive, btw. He’s 5’11”, 169 lbs., 2 goals, 2 assists, 153 penalty minutes. Basically, he gets roughly the same amount of time Mike Brown gets, and seems to run around and hit people. Has about 60 minutes more penalty time than MB.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

I’m not sure whether you’re being tongue-in-cheek or not. Four years ago, I would have said JR, and argued strenuously. Not so now. I think PM’s transformed his play, and right now is a tremendous two-way player. I’ve noted in the past that PM’s gpg goes up in the po’s, while most players, not just JR, go down. That’s one factor that made me re-examine my opinion on PM. He doesn’t need me to extoll him, his body of work speaks for itself, including those two gold medals.

Sharkita

Top- I didn’t think Van would win. I think we can take the Ducks and maybe the Coyote but I don’t we can take the Avs. I think Ducks will only win one of three down the stretch.

Phat Stat Phil

One of those projects I’ve been working on since the Pittsburgh game was to try and figure out what the value of a hit is.

I give you the case of Zbynek Michalek in 2011-2012. He had the dubious honor of having been the target of the most hits recorded yet in a game in the first game of the playoff series between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on 4/11/2012.

(It’s probably not a coincidence that a game with as much build up as that one had comes out with the most recorded hits on one player, given that hits are a subjective stat, but let’s run with it anyway.)

He also happened to go through a game where he was hit only once in a game against New Jersey on 3/25/2012 just 17 days earlier. Let’s start there. He didn’t show up much on the play-by-play sheet in that game against New Jersey. In his first shift, he took a snap shot that was blocked by Andy Greene. On his third shift, he was hit by Travis Zajac, On his fourth shift, he took a slap shot from 47 feet out that was stopped by Fleury. On his eleventh shift, he gave the puck away. The remainder of his 26 shifts were otherwise uneventful.

In the playoff game against Philadelphia, he was hit once in each of his first four shifts by Hartnell, Schenn, Hartnell, and Voracek, On his seventh shift, he was hit by Talbot. On his eighth shift, he gave the puck away once. On his 10th shift, he took a shot that was blocked by Read and was hit by Talbot again. On his 14th shift, he was hit by Simmonds. On his 16th shift, he was hit by Hartnell and Briere. On his 18th shift, he took a slap shot from 55 feet out which was stopped by Fleury. On his 21st shift, he was hit by Hartnell again and 28 seconds later returned the favor by hitting Hartnell. On shift 25, he gave the puck away and was hit by Hartnell. On shift 26, he was hit by Hartnell again. On his 29th shift, he was hit by Simmonds. On shift 31, he was hit by Briere. And nothing of note occurred on his 32nd shift.

I have to say — it doesn’t look from this example like there’s any trends associated with being hit a lot.

Phat Stat Phil

The “Believe you me” suggests to me that it was meant sarcastically.

stevedrummer

Unless you are a troll, Marleau hands down

Hockeynut

Wow, dumb statement of the day. Do you think they lobotomized him by magic? They had to cut in to his head and root around for a while even to find his pea brain. It must have hurt a little bit.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

I’m not sure what one can learn via this methodology. Does it show whether a given player is intimidated by getting hit a lot? Was he concussed, etc.? I find LTNC’s point about the correlation between HITTING and losing to be very provocative. It cuts against the accepted wisdom of many of us (myself included). There’s an obvious logic that Long-Time brings up, which nobody ever looks at, i.e., if you’re significantly out-hitting your opponent, by implication your opponent has the puck and you don’t. And following that, I believe LTNC posted at one point a stat (maybe a belief?) that the team that wins the “hits battle” usually loses the game. To me, that one was a startling revelation.

Now that we’re moving into “playoff mode,” I think this is something to look at. There are a lot of us that grew up with the inherited belief that hitting = winning, not always, but it’s part of the formula. I’m not going all the way to the other extreme on this. You see a hit, you make it. Duh!

Spooky, what’s your thoughts on this? As I interpret some of your posts, I think you’d have something to say on this subject. I’m asking a serious question, not taunting, etc.

EastBayRad

haha oh look its MLBSF…. Believe you me….. so sad

Tom (fm Quinzee)

GP or someone, I’ve seen you do strikethroughs for edits on posts, and I’d like to be able to do that – how do you do that? Type in into another document and copy & paste?

Phat Stat Phil

I’ve known about the correlation between hitting and losing through some of the work on the Maple Leafs.

If there’s a correlation between hitting and losing, then it raises the question of “If you’re not controlling the puck anyway, does it make sense to hit?”

I’m of the belief that the correlation between outhitting your opponent and losing is more a result of negative possession than hitting your opponent being an ineffective tactic. I believe that there is a value to hitting and there are plenty of games we can point to where hitting seemed to make a difference.

That’s why I’m looking for some sort of indication in the value of a hit by looking at players shift-by-shift to see if there’s any change in their metrics before and after a hit.

So far, no luck.

MLBSF

Who cares who is better. All I know is that JR was right on the money regarding his criticism of Marleau. In fact Marleau should thank JR for embarrassing him into upping his game.

I still don’t think Marleau will ever win a Stanley Cup, however he’s not quite the slug he used to be.

NB Finfan

I want to get into this conversation a little. From what I understand hits are supposed to be counted when a check separates a player from the puck. So a player “finishing” a check doesn’t get credit for the hit. Likewise he doesn’t get credit if the hit doesn’t separate the player from the puck. So the hit count doesn’t reflect physical play.

But I think physical play is an essential element of the game. When you close in on your opponent quickly and they know your going to hit them, it forces them to hurry a play where they make mistakes. Also the toll of being hit during the course of the game starts to create fatigue on the legs. This can pay big dividend in a seven game series.

renoshark

Agreed. Hitting to cause a turnover, hitting to wear an opponent down over the course of a playoff series, or a big hit which inspires your teammates or sets the tone for a game, are all key factors to a game. They’re obviously combined with other factors but key nonetheless.

sharks1989

if they want to leave Ukraine then get Visa’s and go to Russia, can’t just expect someone to come annex you.

sharks1989

oops wrong page

MLBSF

smh

NB Finfan

Just thought of another benefit for being physical. Sometimes you can get player to play outside of their game trying to compensate or get even. A good example of that was the penalty Sbisa took against Wingels a few games back.

sharks1989

believe you me

GP_hockeyhappens

PSP said this:

“I have to say — it doesn’t look from this example like there’s any trends associated with being hit a lot.”

I agree with conclusion. And of course that expands into my narrative. That being, there are few patterns in hockey. If there are patterns outside the strategic and tactical Xs and Os, they are not likely to be a common impact-full (word?) element.

Trends of patterns may be something different also. Style of play for example. Rules and rule changes may have an impact on patterns. Neutral Zone Trap became a trend for a while. It was used in winning games and the Cup. Then rule changes helped minimize the effectiveness. In this case, specifically, I think because of the elimination of the red line(two line pass).

But back to the value of a hit. This value, IMO, becomes more of a “in the moment” element of the game. For instance, when a perceived big “hit” is made in a game, you might be able to measure value by time it takes the “hitting” team to score a goal. But who/what decides what that big hit is? There is no way to do it. A hit of that magnitude may have a real effect immediately or much later.

I imagine many a coach will see a particular body check in two ways: did the hit result in regaining the puck; or did the hit result in the hitting player out of position defensively? The value of a hit beyond those is probably meaningless except maybe regarding momentum. You can’t measure momentum. That is really emotional.

Then the coach has to decide if the player did this as a result of the system being used or the player did not follow the system being used. The answer to that question(s) could result in the system being improved/changed or the player being improved/changed.

The “hit” in reality becomes something very different based on who is participating. The fan and maybe the media/jouralist will see a hit changed the momentum of the game for a period of time. The actual participants in the game or hit will see it as simple as “we got the puck back” or “took the player out of the play.”